Goldsborough robinson



UNITED STATES PATENT Orrrcnt GOLDSBOROUGI-I ROBINSON, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR TO THE LOUISVILLE SPIRIT CURED TOBACCO COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

PROCESS OF TREATING TOBACCO.

SPECIFICATION forming part. of Letters Patent No. 345,076, dated July 6, 1886.

Application filed December 23, 1885. Serial No. 185,538. (No specimens.) I

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, GoLDsBoRoUeH Roma soN, of Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented an In provement in a Process for Treating Tobacco; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to a novel process designed especially for the saturation of leaftobacco with alcohol or other volatile fluid, in order that its color and quality may be improved.

In order that the details of this invention may be better understood, I will describe the processes applied in carrying out my invention for improving the color and quality of leaf tobacco, patented March 9, 1880, No. 225,422. In thatprocesslsatu rate the tobacco with alcohol at an elevated temperature, and

then dry it by a blast of hot air, whereby the color of the dark leaf is raised to a bright hue, and the market value and quality enhanced. In using that process, however, the volatile character of the alcohol requires some special process to save thealcohol and render the process economical.

To these ends my present process consists in placing the tobacco to be saturated in suitably-arranged tight chambers, as hereinafter described, and flooding it therein first with hot alcohol, then drawing off the hot alcohol and flooding the tobacco with cold alcohol, then drawing off the latter and applying a slight pressure to the tobacco to exude surplus alcohol, and then flooding the tobacco momentarily with cold water, to rinse off any alcohol remaining on the outside of theleaf. Theleaf is then dried in asuitably-prepared drier with steam heater and condenser attached, and a continuous draft of air, as described in my o patent, dated July 13, 1880, No. 230,061.

The object of treating leaf-tobacco with alcohol is to improve the color and also the quality of the tobacco by abstracting from it nicetine and other injurious and detrimental eon- 4 5 stituents, and in practice it is found that after the tobacco has been treated with hot alcohol the resins and other matters contained in the cells of the tobacco are dissolved, and when it is not treated with cold alcohol or chilled in some way before heat is applied to dry it they become black and fixed in the leaf, giving it the appearance of having been frost-bitten.

Having thus fully described my invention,

what I claim as new, and desire to secure by 5;

Letters Patent, is-

1. The process of improving the quality and color of leaf-tobacco herein described, consist ing in first flooding the leaf-tobacco with hot alcohol, then wit-l1 cold alcohol, and finally with water, substantially as set forth.

2. The process of improving the quality and color of leaf-tobacco, as herein described, consisting in first flooding the leaf'tobacco with hot alcohol, then with cold alcohol, then ap- 

